With all this talk of "Tormato", I decided to give it yet another listen to see if I would warm up some more to it, and my opinion of it did not change at all.
There are some really amazing tracks on there, like "Don't Kill the Whale" and "Onward".
There are some OK tracks like "Future Times/Rejoice" and "Madrigal".
Finally, the rest are just terrible, some of Yes' worse songs and recordings they have ever devised.
IMHO, I don't think any amount of remixing can save that record. Not only are their major issues with some of the compositions, along with major deficiencies in some of the recorded sounds (which maybe remixing can fix…), but some of the production decisions just leave me scratching my head in bewilderment.
The choice of guitar tones and keyboard sounds is really off throughout most of this album, and this is something that some of the Yes members readily acknowledge.
Steve and Rick were both trying out new sounds/instruments for a good portion of this record, and it just did not work out well at all.
But what above all else is the major flaw with this record? It all stems from the fact that Yes did not hire another producer after Eddie Offord left the sessions.
They got away with not having a producer for "Going for the One" because the compositions and arrangements were on-par with the quality of work produced during previous years, but they were so totally lost on "Tormato", and it shows.
A strong producer could have turned that album around, but instead, they released it as is, leading to the turmoil and fallouts that ensued afterwards.
Anyway, all of the above is the opinion of yours truly, so feel free to agree or throw a Tormato at me.
